Under preliminary rules, the state would require hunters to get permits at $100 for residents and $300 for non-residents.

The hunt would take place Oct. 24 through Oct. 3 and the same weapons allowed for deer hunting would be permitted for bear hunting, with a limit of one kill per person per season.

“Just like Florida, we use both lethal and non-lethal approaches to managing black bears,” New Jersey Fish and Wildlife director David Chanda said.

Chanda said at the hearing that more than 1,800 bears have been killed in his state since a hunt was initiated in 2010.

“You just gave us a speech that 'Hunting is good in New Jersey,'” said Josiah Keach, who opposes bear hunting.

Keach and several other opponents mocked the idea of a bear hunt and chided the state for failing to get results of its own bear population survey before declaring it safe to hunt an animal that was listed as endangered in Florida until 2012.

“I'm not really going to state anything because I feel like it would be about as useful as hunting the bears in the forest to get rid of the bears living in the suburbs,” Deltona resident Kelly Boller said.

An environmental group from New York donated $5,387 for the state to buy more bearproof trash cans.

Supporters of the hunt said the state should allow more than 200 bears to be hunted annually.

“You will not get your 20 percent objective, because bears are just not out in the daytime when people are typically hunting,” Tallahassee Safari Club president Steve Greenwell said.